No
summer league in the country has been dominated by one team in recent
years more than the Southern California Collegiate League, where the
Palm Springs Power has run roughshod over its competition. The Power
won its third straight league title this summer, posting a team
record for wins in going 46-5 overall while compiling a 17-3 mark in
league play. Over the last five years, the Power is a staggering
197-27 overall and 94-12 in the SCCBL.

Besides
being the only team in the league to make an overt attempt to recruit
players from beyond the California state line, the Power has always
had a decided advantage by playing a vast majority of its games at
home, and went 43-3 on its own turf this summer. It played just five
games as a visiting team, going 3-2.

With
such a pronounced home-field advantage, Palm Springs may soon find
that too much of a good thing may not be in its best interests, or
the league overall, as the Long Beach Legends, who have finished
second in the league the last two years and provided the Power with
its stiffest competition, won’t return to the SCCBL in 2014 and
will seek a league in the area where the playing field is a little
more level.

TOP
10 PROSPECTS
1.
JACKSON McCLELLAND, rhp, Palm Springs Power (Pepperdine/SO in 2014)With
a 4-1, 2.88 record in 10 appearances (5 starts), McClelland was
hardly the go-to arm on the Power staff this summer. But at a
physically-imposing 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, and coming off an
impressive freshman season at Pepperdine (2-1, 1.46 in 22
appearances, mostly in a mid-week starter and set-up role),
McClelland easily showcased the most upside of any player in the
SCCBL. A 35th-round
pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2012 draft out of a California
high school, where he starred equally as a pitcher and at the plate,
McClelland is very athletic on the mound and has the makings of two
above-average pitches in his fastball and breaking ball while coming
from a high-three-quarters delivery. A spot in the Pepperdine weekend
rotation as a sophomore should be his for the taking if he can master
a reliable changeup, develop his command and raw stuff, and continue
to grow into his big frame.

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